291 ac
Artys spent the following days studying the Red Keep. Every corridor, stairwell, and hidden doorway became a mental map he committed to memory, scrawling notes in his Japanese journal by candlelight. Servants whispered about the boy who wandered the Tower of the Hand alone, yet none dared question him—his father's reputation and the sigil of House Arryn commanded respect.
He began experimenting with the falcon in new ways. When the bird took flight, he would close his eyes and focus, picturing himself inside its feathers, imagining the world from above. At first, it was clumsy, a haze of wind, stone, and motion. But soon the falcon's vision became his own. He could anticipate where a servant would step, where a door would creak, even which corridors were empty.
Next, he tried cats. The kitchens were full of them, slinking between tables and barrels. Artys crouched behind a pillar, focusing his mind on the small, lithe body of a grey-and-white tabby. For a heartbeat, the world shifted: he felt the cat's heartbeat, the subtle twitch of its whiskers, the weight of its paws on the flagstones. The perspective was alien—low to the ground, every sound magnified—but it taught him patience, stealth, and observation.
Horses came later. The stables were warm with straw and the earthy scent of beasts. He closed his eyes, extending his consciousness into the nearest destrier, a massive black gelding with a scarred flank. He felt the power in the horse's muscles, the rhythmic thump of hooves against stone, the panic and excitement of a creature eager to run. He could almost predict how it would move under a rider, how it would respond to the reins. This was different from the falcon—he had to contend with weight, momentum, and instinct—but it broadened his understanding.
Skinchanging—he had read about it in the history books. Children of the Forest could do it, as could the warg kings of the North. It was rumored that Bloodraven, the bastard son of Aegon the Unworthy, could summon animals and make them spy for him. Lady Lothston was said to command bats.
I suppose these weren't mere superstitions of the smallfolk, Artys concluded. He had Firstmen blood in him. His grandmother was a Whent who had intermarried with the Lothstons and had been sworn to them before House Lothston was extinguished. His great-grandfather on his mother's side had also wed a Blackwood. Perhaps that was how he had inherited these powers. The serum must have amplified latent ability, he hypothesized. His father was half Royce himself, and Bronze Yohn Royce, the head of House Royce of Runestone, was his second cousin.
Through these exercises, Artys realized something crucial: he was not merely observing. The serum had amplified his senses, yes—but he could project his awareness, his consciousness, into these animals but his familiars as he called them were far easier . breaking in a new animal took a long time as the animal conscious fought back.
He tested it on a rat next, skittering along a corridor near the kitchens. From its perspective, he saw every servant's step, every hidden alcove, every cart and barrel that might conceal a listening ear. The rats' small bodies slipped through cracks and holes he could never access, giving him a complete map of the Keep's hidden passages.
By the time the sun set, Artys had sketched several new diagrams in his journal, combining his warging experiments with what he had already memorized of the Keep's architecture. He could now traverse the Tower of the Hand without moving a single step, knowing which doors led to empty halls, which corridors echoed footsteps, and which rooms were lightly guarded.
The falcon returned to perch on his shoulder. Its sharp eyes scanned the courtyard, but Artys was already planning the next phase: expanding his reach, sending his perception into more animals, learning the patterns of the guards, the servants, and even the courtiers. He would know the Red Keep from the inside out long before any of them suspected a boy of eight was watching.
The Keep's walls cannot hide secrets from me. Not with what I am becoming. He was improving maybe i could one day warg human he thought darkly some how the thought felt evil but know that it had entered his mind it would not leave .